KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO technology procurement is getting nimbler, thanks to hard-won lessons from Afghanistan.
Take the new security system at Kabul International Airport (KAIA), in which 16 closed-circuit cameras feed visible-light and infrared imagery (both still and video) via fiber-optic cables to a new Ground Defense Command Center. From initial site survey in late May to system acceptance in late November, the entire system was designed, developed, installed and tested in less than six months - perhaps one-third as long as under NATO's traditional procurement model.
Among the keys, say officials with NATO's Consultation, Command and Control Agency (NC3A) and local observers, are putting NATO personnel in the field, allowing more use of off-the-shelf gear and accepting "80 percent solutions" when they provide necessary capability within an acceptable timeframe.
Along with thousands of troops, NATO has also dispatched field managers and deployable field engineers to work with contractor project managers in Afghanistan. It's the first large-scale deployment of NATO procurement officials to the field, a move that allows "the intelligent application of common sense," said Marty Angeli, NC3A's field office manager at KAIA.
The change allows contractors and program managers to speak face-to-face to resolve issues. It also helps them respond to queries from Brussels and the Hague within a day - sometimes within minutes, Angeli said.
This rapid coordination with the chain of command allows Europe-based procurement officials to understand the obstacles and release resources appropriately, said Michal Olejarnik, an NC3A spokesman in Brussels.
Angeli said the airport security system and other projects "have challenged us to work in new ways, ranging from what amounts to spiral development to the use of deployable field engineers, which have contributed to our ability to make massive reductions in the time it takes us to move from concept to installation and initial operating capability in response to user demand."
NC3A has concentrated much of its effort on security at KAIA and Kandahar Airfield (KAF).
NC3A picked EMW of Herndon, Va., for the 22 million euro ($31.7 million) installation of the new KAIA perimeter-security system. The nine large and seven small cameras can spot humans "a significant distance" from the fence, said Travis Poole, local manager for EMW at KAIA.
"The camera system has replaced the 'Mark I Eyeball' as the principal sensor for the GDCC," the Ground Defense Command Center, Poole said.
Meanwhile, NC3A is rushing to launch a new system to scan the hundreds of trucks that enter the Afghan airports each day, bringing fuel, water and spare parts.
"We have taken existing scanning technologies and off-the-shelf components and integrated them very quickly into a system that meets the unique challenge of the operating environment here," the agency's Todd Morgan said.
The need for speed has driven NATO to change its traditional resistance to using off-the-shelf components, Morgan said.
Morgan's lengthy tenure on site - almost two years - has given him relationships and institutional knowledge that have been instrumental in accelerating the project, according to his colleagues.
And to give more warnings about incoming rockets at KAIA and KAF, NC3A commissioned Giant Voice, a set of solar-powered, mast-mounted loudspeakers by Danish company HSS Engineering and controlled by touch screens in the GDCC.
"We have our own radio station at KAF - 95.5 Rocket FM - that gives us much better reaction times than we've ever had before," Morgan said.
Installed in just a few weeks, the new system doubles the warning time for incoming rockets, from three to four seconds to seven to 10 seconds - enough to have boosted confidence within the camp, according to Morgan.
But the best example of the NC3A's new alacrity is the new Combined Joint Operations Center (CJOC) for the ISAF joint command headquarters at KAIA.
Housed in a former gym, the CJOC holds about 100 staff who use secure workstations, giant wall-mounted displays and a data fusion system to integrate intelligence and surveillance data and allow commanders throughout Afghanistan to react to events as they unfold.
"We now have more capacity to take an active interest in what the Regional Commands are proposing and doing," said Col. Peter Cameron of the British Royal Marine Commandos, who directs the CJOC. "We are turning information into knowledge and then that knowledge into the capacity to act."
Within three months of NATO approval last July, a 35-man team led by Gérard Kempf of Thales Support and Services installed more than 1,000 workstations in the CJOC and headquarters buildings.
Among the innovations: flood cabling, which allows laying amounts of cable well in excess of the original specification, which permits subsequent network growth to be handled rapidly and efficiently.
And again, having eyes on the scene was valuable: Kempf and his colleagues, and NC3A managers in an oversight role, made on-the-spot engineering and implementation decisions in order to meet the demands of ISAF commanders.
The CJOC at KAIA achieved its initial operating capability in mid-October, when the joint ISAF command took on responsibility for all operations in Afghanistan and full capability a month later.
"The CJOC configuration alone changed 79 times during this period, but we have managed to provide it with massive redundancy from day one," said Kempf.
He said this additional capacity is likely to be fully used within two years.
NC3A used the same techniques of instant on-the-spot decision-making and closer communication between provider and user in setting up the the first phase of the Common Mission Network. A backbone that enables all 43 ISAF nations to access secret communications, the first phase of the network was created in nine months, which observers believe is record time for such a project.
The network can move data seamlessly among the U.S.-eyes only Secret Internet Protocol Router (SIPR), the U.S. Combined Enterprise Regional Information Exchange (CENTRIX) and the NATO Secret network.
E-mail: tmahon@defensenews.com.
Video 
Help
